[ April 19, 2024 ]
US Attorney McGregor Scott is standing by the conviction: “It has consistently been our position that Mr. Hayat received effective representation at trial and that his conviction by a jury, subsequently affirmed by the Ninth Circuit, is completely valid.” This new claim, backed by Hamas-CAIR, that Hayat was a victim of a wave of “islamophobia” in the U.S. after 9/11, is ridiculous on its face. A week after 9/11, the President of the U.S. declared that Islam was a religion of peace. There never was a wave of “islamophobia” in the U.S. Could it be that Hayat’s conviction is being overturned because of false narratives about Muslim victimhood that CAIR and others have spread assiduously since 9/11?
“US judge recommends overturning California terror conviction,” Associated Press, January 11, 2019:
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. — A federal magistrate on Friday recommended overturning the controversial 2006 conviction of a California man accused of attending a terrorist training camp in Pakistan and plotting an attack in the United States.
Story continues below advertisementHamid Hayat, now 36, who was then a young cherry-picker from Lodi, has served about half his 24-year sentence.
But U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Barnes said he likely never would have been convicted were it not for the inexperience of his defense attorney, who failed to call alibi witnesses.
“A reasonably competent attorney would have done more to investigate Hayat’s alibi,” Barnes said in a 116-page opinion.
Her recommendation that the conviction be vacated now goes to U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. He presided over Hayat’s original trial, conviction and sentencing and previously rejected a defense motion over whether Hayat was properly represented at trial. Either side can appeal Burrell’s eventual decision.
Barnes heard new testimony from witnesses who said Hayat, who was born in California, never had time to receive terror training while visiting relatives and getting married in his ancestral village in Pakistan. Barnes also found that Hayat’s defense attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, should have put on evidence from an expert on false confessions who could have countered prosecutors’ claim that Hayat confessed.
Mojaddidi, an immigration and family law attorney who was trying her first criminal case, said she “passionately represented Hamid Hayat as a young attorney and worked with a great team of lawyers and investigators in his defense.”
She said in a statement that she always has believed he is innocent and is elated by Barnes’ recommendation.
Prosecutors are reviewing the magistrate’s recommendation, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said.
“It has consistently been our position that Mr. Hayat received effective representation at trial and that his conviction by a jury, subsequently affirmed by the Ninth Circuit, is completely valid,” he said in a statement….
Investigators initially claimed five men were part of an al-Qaida “sleeper cell” in the agricultural community south of Sacramento. But federal prosecutors eventually deported three of the men without charges, while Hayat’s father, an ice cream truck driver, admitted only to a customs violation after a jury couldn’t decide whether he lied to federal agents about his son’s activities.
Only Hayat was convicted in 2006 of providing material support to terrorists and lying to FBI agents. Prosecutors alleged that he had a “jihadi heart” and plotted attacks on hospitals, banks, grocery stores and government buildings.
Critics have held the case out as an example of investigators’ and prosecutors’ overzealous approach to the Muslim community after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
“The prosecution took advantage of post-9/11 hysteria to convict him,” Basim Elkarra, executive director of the Sacramento Valley office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement.
The FBI paid an informant $230,000 over three years to infiltrate a Lodi mosque and record conversations with imams and worshippers after he improbably claimed to have seen several high-ranking al-Qaida officials there in the late 1990s. The informant encouraged Hayat to attend a training camp while he was in Pakistan.
His attorneys said Hayat’s eventual confession was coerced during a marathon FBI interrogation and that the terror training camp was closed during the time in 2003 and 2004 when prosecutors said Hayat was purportedly there for three to six months. He was arrested shortly after returning to the United States in 2005.
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26 Comments
5 years ago
Hopefully this insane recommendation will be ignored.
Why aren’t these insane judges being impeached or removed?
“US Attorney McGregor Scott is standing by the conviction: “It has consistently been our position that Mr. Hayat received effective representation at trial and that his conviction by a jury, subsequently affirmed by the Ninth Circuit, is completely valid.” This new claim, backed by Hamas-CAIR, that Hayat was a victim of a wave of “islamophobia” in the U.S. after 9/11, is ridiculous on its face.”
Mitch keep those judge confirmations moving at warp speed!
It’s the least you can do for Trump to not totally expose yourself….
5 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Agree. Left/Liberals are commies who support illegals/jihadis !
Left/Liberal are also making ISIS / jihadis happy by making beheading fashionable https://tinyurl.com/y7k93bs9
Insane ?
5 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
Might also want to ask that so called “magistrate” How much she is getting from that cair organization. She needs to be removed.
5 years ago
This is exactly why we need to try these creeps for treason and sedition. Then, if found guilty, executed rapidly…
5 years ago
Reply to
MAS
Not gonna happen, they would rather keep them in prison and spend more taxpayers money as well as search for a judge who will try to get them released to try again.
5 years ago
People like this need to “disappear”, just like in the good old days.
5 years ago
The Trump-government is regularly financing Muhammadist tyrannies like Pakistan where atheists & other critics are killed & oppressed & the unjust Muhammad-law, war & tyranny promoted.
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia & Hama-CAIR also promote indoctrinating censorship & deception on American social media Trump promotes.
5 years ago
Reply to
Jay Wizzy
So, I guess Obama, Clinton and the Bushies never sent any money to the Pakis?
5 years ago
Reply to
Jay Wizzy
Trump just cut off the money to Pakistan. All other Presidents in the recent past have tried to bribe the goatiphiles.
5 years ago
Reply to
Jay Wizzy
hahahahahahahahaha…. Can I get some of what you are smoking?
Liking kids is an enhancement of your resume to democrats
5 years ago
“Barnes heard new testimony from witnesses who said Hayat, who was born in California, never had time to receive terror training while visiting relatives and getting married in his ancestral village in Pakistan.” Well, of course he didn’t have time. Everybody knows that when the filthy moolsime goes back home, they work round the clock on “tending” to their goats and making a better bomb burka. No time, indeed!
5 years ago
Reply to
santashandler
What the hell else is there to do in Pakistain? After all, a mujahedin can’t spend allah their time molesting unlucky goats and unlucky little boys!
5 years ago
All muslims are the scourge of the earth and follow the doctrine of hate of all non-mudslimes!!!!! The guy was in mudslime land over 2+ years and there was NO time to go to a training camp? How long are mudslime training camps when most basics are onlt 8 weeks and much of that is learning US code and rules…mudslimes already know their doctrine of hate so they just need to learn how to use a knife and a gun, which they already use.
5 years ago
How many people are defended by a “team” of great lawyers???
5 years ago
So much sympathy for Islam in the Western justice system is extremely problematic and dangerous to our own citizens in the long run!
5 years ago
This is ridiculous, the magistrate is just dreaming up excuses.
“Barnes also found that Hayat’s defense attorney, Wazhma Mojaddidi, should have put on evidence from an expert on false confessions who could have countered prosecutors’ claim that Hayat confessed.”
He confessed. That has nothing to do with Islamophobia which, by the way, we need a bit more of here.
5 years ago
Seems like they will BEND backwards for Megroes, Mouslems, Migrants and Mexicans. But for you and me? The ones they are suppose to work for, represent and defend?
They couldn’t give a sh it or a rat’s a ss about YOU or your Constitution. Time to bring the gallows out.
5 years ago
Doesn’t she have enough to keep her busy in Oklahoma? It’s amazing how the progressive/liberal/socialist/leftist dem lawyers find these judges they know will be sympathetic to them.
5 years ago
There should be a movement to round up all the CAIR principles and deport them. if they are American born then they are traitors requiring the death penalty.
5 years ago
CAIR pays good money to buy these obola judges
